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BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of Chinese smashed windows and threw rocks at the Japanese embassy and ambassador's residence in Beijing on Saturday in a protest against Japan's wartime past and its bid for a U.N. Security Council seat.

Protesters pushed their way through a paramilitary police cordon to the gates of the Japanese ambassador's residence, throwing stones and water bottles and shouting "Japanese pig come out."

Some 500 paramilitary police holding plastic shields raced into the compound and barricaded the gates. Protesters threw stones and bricks at the residence, and shouted at police, "Chinese people shouldn't protect Japanese."

Anti-Japanese sentiment has been running high in China since Tuesday Japan when approved a textbook critics say whitewashes atrocities committed during World War II, and many Chinese feel the country has not owned up to its wartime aggression.

Demonstrators, who said they had been organized mostly through e-mail and instant messaging, had been marching peacefully under heavy police guard.

One group began throwing bottles and stones when they passed a Japanese restaurant, smashing windows with tiles they had ripped from its roof before police stopped them.

A second Japanese restaurant was targeted later in the evening, with bricks thrown through the window, terrifying kimono-clad waitresses.

"We are all Chinese in here and were just minding our own business," one told Reuters minutes after the attack. "This is terrifying."

She said some of the protesters had helped them clean up and advised them not to wear such sensitive uniforms.

Protesters also attacked a Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi branch and smashed windows before police moved in.

Another group outside the embassy in southeast Beijing threw stones and plastic water bottles smashing windows in the compound, a Reuters photographer said. Some demonstrators scuffled with police.

The violence prompted an official protest in Tokyo by Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi who asked Chinese Minister to Japan Cheng Yonghua to strengthen security, Kyodo news agency said.

By 7.30 p.m. (7:30 a.m. EDT), the main crowd just outside the gates to the Japanese ambassador's residence had dispersed, but hundreds of others, many of them marchers who arrived late, remained at the corner of the compound.

Police used loudspeakers to try to persuade the students to go back to their universities.

LARGE PROTESTS RARE

The demonstration started in the Beijing neighborhood of Zhongguancun, known for its electronics shops and home to a large student population, and comes less than a week after anti-Japanese protests in other Chinese cities turned violent.

"Japan doesn't face up to its history," said Cheng Lei, a 27-year-old information technology professional. "We want to express our feelings so the Japanese government knows what we think."

Police declined to say how many protesters were on the streets, but the official Xinhua news agency put the number at more than 10,000. Onlookers thronged the streets, cheering on the demonstration and snapping photos as scores of police looked on.

Large-scale protests are rare in China, where the Communist leadership is concerned about maintaining stability at a time of wrenching social change and a widening gap between rich and poor.

Past demonstrations outside the Japanese embassy have typically been heavily policed, choreographed events involving about 50 people, with short speeches, some singing and petitions or letters being presented to the mission.

Last week, protesters smashed windows at a Japanese supermarket in the southwestern city of Chengdu after a demonstration there against Japan's bid for a permanent Security Council seat turned violent.

Demonstrators also took to the streets in Guangzhou, Chongqing and the southern city of Shenzhen, where two Japanese department stores were vandalized.

Domestic media said 20 million Chinese had signed an online petition opposing the U.N. seat bid.

KICKING A TOYOTA

Many Chinese harbor deep resentment of Japan's wartime aggression and what they see as its failure to own up to atrocities.

Some protesters wore red signs pasted to their chests bearing a traditional Chinese dragon and reading "Reject Japanese goods." Others began kicking a Toyota car caught in the middle of the crowd before it managed to drive away.

"Across the country, the mood to refuse Japanese goods is high, but nothing has been done about this. Therefore, patriotic students have organized themselves," said a notice circulated by e-mail on Friday urging people to protest.

On Saturday, the mostly student protesters carried signboards with lists of Japanese brand names crossed out and chanted slogans outside an electronics plaza urging the boycott.

Police guarded the entrance to the electronics plaza to stop demonstrators from pushing inside, and at least 20 police vans stood by to prevent the protest from escalating as the group chanted "Rise up, rise up, rise up." (Additional reporting by Brian Rhoads, Benjamin Kang Lim, Lucy Hornsby, and Reuters Television)

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It's not just China, it happens in Cuba and other authoritarian regimes. Spontaneous gatherings of people scare the crap out of the Communist Party. Example: Tiannamen Square was totally spontaneous and the government didn't know how to deal with it. Finally, after wracking their brains they sent in the "Peoples' Liberation Army." They liberated the Chinese protesters from their lives on earth.

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It's not just China, it happens in Cuba and other authoritarian regimes. Spontaneous gatherings of people scare the crap out of the Communist Party. Example: Tiannamen Square was totally spontaneous and the government didn't know how to deal with it. Finally, after wracking their brains they sent in the "Peoples' Liberation Army." They liberated the Chinese protesters from their lives on earth.

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I do know what the Japanese did in WWII to the Chinese people and to the Korean people throughout their occupation of the Korean peninsula. I also know that the Japanese have never apologized to any country it invaded or occupied and killed millions of people. I know about the Nanjing Massacre and the Korean "comfort women."

But, the "Cultural Revolution" in China killed many people too, just that they were Chinese killing Chinese. Now that China is growing and people are getting greater income, they are allowing their nationalistic love of China (which is good) to blind themselves from seeing that they are ruled by an authoritarian regime. It is very similar to Germany in the 1930's when the Nazis came to power. Hitler gave people jobs in the military industries and the majority of the country felt proud to be German again. This was when Hitler started the concentration camps for people who he didn't like politically. Most Germans did nothing because they allowed their national pride to hide the hideous side of the Nazis.

Registered

I do know what the Japanese did in WWII to the Chinese people and to the Korean people throughout their occupation of the Korean peninsula. I also know that the Japanese have never apologized to any country it invaded or occupied and killed millions of people. I know about the Nanjing Massacre and the Korean "comfort women."

But, the "Cultural Revolution" in China killed many people too, just that they were Chinese killing Chinese. Now that China is growing and people are getting greater income, they are allowing their nationalistic love of China (which is good) to blind themselves from seeing that they are ruled by an authoritarian regime. It is very similar to Germany in the 1930's when the Nazis came to power. Hitler gave people jobs in the military industries and the majority of the country felt proud to be German again. This was when Hitler started the concentration camps for people who he didn't like politically. Most Germans did nothing because they allowed their national pride to hide the hideous side of the Nazis.

the protest is fueled by some actions by japanese government recently(For china the textbook and Japan's bid for UNSC, for korea the textbook and japanese claim on a korean island) it's not like chinese talk about nanjing massacre everyday, but japan keeps doing inappropriate things.

the party is notorious, but it's still our government, and when it comes to issues dealing with foreign countries, we need to stand together. and even you mentioned thanks to the party many chinese are getting higher incomes. you have to bear in mind chinese have never experienced democracy before, china it's one dynasty after another dynasty, i still consider PRC a new dynasty after a fragmentation period(from 1911 to 1949), though officially it's a republic. of course the difference is this dynasty is not ruled by a single emperor but by a group of people (not a dictatorship, much like oligarchy in sparta), now the time is good, so people dont want to rebel, but history has proven when the ruler becomes bad, the people will get fed up, and there will be revolts. I'd like to see CCP go for good ultimately, i personally like the singapore style democracy, i dont think US democracy is suitable for us. but right now it's not the time, if CCP collapse tomorrow, ok one problem is gone, but there will be many new problems? who will rule China? will democracy be successful in china or maybe the new government will be even worse? we might even go to civil wars again. nevertheless, i think there should be more human rights in china, i agree it HAS improved, but more should be done. BUT i am not fond of the idea of general elctions.

no i am not a member of communist party, i dont like CCP very much mainly because i am a nationalist, therefore i consider confucian ethics essential for the chinese, it was destroyed by communist during cultural revolution. We can thank CCP for the immorality in china today, although many people argue the economic reforms and westernisation probably was a far more important factor than cutlural revolution.

Grygry

I do know what the Japanese did in WWII to the Chinese people and to the Korean people throughout their occupation of the Korean peninsula. I also know that the Japanese have never apologized to any country it invaded or occupied and killed millions of people. I know about the Nanjing Massacre and the Korean "comfort women."

But, the "Cultural Revolution" in China killed many people too, just that they were Chinese killing Chinese. Now that China is growing and people are getting greater income, they are allowing their nationalistic love of China (which is good) to blind themselves from seeing that they are ruled by an authoritarian regime. It is very similar to Germany in the 1930's when the Nazis came to power. Hitler gave people jobs in the military industries and the majority of the country felt proud to be German again. This was when Hitler started the concentration camps for people who he didn't like politically. Most Germans did nothing because they allowed their national pride to hide the hideous side of the Nazis.

Hum... If you open your history book and read about Hitler's begginings, you'll find out the two countries you compare were living different story at the time. Germany was in a bad economic crisis that lasted long after 1929 (not ended up in 1933, Hitler's first election). On the other side, China is making big progress and Chinese people are hopefull their country will make a slow turn towards more wealth and democracy.
So on one side a nationalisic wrath leading to blindness, and on the other hopes that make people more (too?) patient. Looks different to me.

By the way, chinese people I know are rather angry at the japanese attitude in this affair, so why people wouldn't want to demonstrate spontaneously?

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I think this is an generally Anti-Japanese protest stage not by the government, but stage by the people. Implicitly this protest is also against the government for not taking a tougher line with Japan.

sounds like typical Japanese. they often think Chinese hate them because of the communist brainwash.:hahaha:
German cannot worship Hitler now but Japanese Prime Minister worship their Hitler every year. i don't think Jews would let someone worship Nazist leaders.

you seems not able to distinguish a countryman and a communist. also, don't mix Mao's stupid economic policies in his country with Japanese facists atrocities in other countries. Only the Chinese people are capable to judge Mao's policies.

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Tokyo lodged a formal protest with Beijing over a violent anti-Japan protest in the Chinese capital, demanding an apology and compensation.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura summoned China's ambassador to Japan, Wang Yi, a day after the rally which drew up to 10,000 people and ended with angry demonstrators throwing rocks, bottles and eggs at the Japanese embassy.

Machimura will likely visit China next Sunday to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing, a foreign ministry official said.

Meanwhile Wang told reporters that Beijing did not condone the violent behaviour.

"The (Chinese) government does not agree with extreme action," Wang said.

China appealed for calm after the demonstration, saying a huge police force had been mobilized to keep order after Beijing's biggest protest in six years.

But about 3,000 protesters gathered outside the Japanese consulate in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Sunday, according to a consulate official.

TV footage of the Beijing embassy showed broken windows and the main entrance littered with empty bottles and rocks. Foreign journalists were refused entry to the embassy to survey the damage on Sunday, a diplomat said in Beijing.

Japanese embassy spokesman Keiji Ide told AFP that 20 of the embassy building's windows were broken and five windows were smashed at the ambassador's residence in a different part of town.

The march was held to protest Japan's treatment of its wartime past in a history textbook and its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

The textbook row prompted China on Tuesday to summon the Japanese ambassador, who in a break from usual practice made his own demands, urging Beijing to put an end to alleged incitement of anti-Japanese sentiments.

China suffered a bloody occupation by Japan up to 1945, the most infamous incident being the 1937 massacre by Japanese troops of both soldiers and civilians in Nanjing.

Saturday's rowdy protest received front-page coverage in Japan's five major newspapers Sunday with the business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun calling on China to exercise "self-restraint" following the rally.

Japan's conservative daily Sankei Shimbun strongly criticized Beijing, saying the Chinese government appeared to have approved of anti-Japanese action.

"What is troubling is that despite Beijing's promises to ensure security for the Japanese side, Chinese authorities did not prevent demonstrators from throwing rocks and bottles," the Sankei said.

The Asian neighbors have increasingly been at loggerheads. In November, Japan lodged a protest when a Chinese nuclear submarine intruded its waters near bitterly disputed gas reserves.

China has protested visits to Japan by Taiwan's former pro-independence president Lee Teng-hui in December and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama who arrived Friday.

Registered

Up to 20,000 anti-Japanese protesters took to the streets of two southern Chinese cities, as Japan demanded an apology for a violent rally outside its embassy in Beijing the previous day.

Burning Japanese flags and waving banners demanding the country face up to its wartime past, around 10,000 people marched on the Japanese consulate in the city of Guangzhou Sunday, said Japanese embassy spokesman Keiji Ide.

Another 10,000 people gathered outside a Japanese supermarket named Jusco in the nearby city of Shenzhen.

An eyewitness in Guangzhou and a protester in Shenzhen said many protesters were wearing T-shirts and carrying banners reading "Don't buy Japanese products," "Terminate Sino-Japanese relations" and "Don't alter history".

Demonstrators were seen kicking a Mitsubishi car and tearing down a Sony billboard. Eggs, bottles and tomatoes were thrown at a Japanese restaurant. As they marched, the protesters sang the national anthem and wartime resistance songs.

Several thousand police ringed the office block housing the consulate and a police van with a loudspeaker later urged the crowd to go home.

Around 100 hardcore protesters tried to break through fences and there were minor scuffles before the four-hour demonstration ended around 1:00 pm.

On Saturday more than 10,000 protesters marched through Beijing, hurling rocks, bottles and eggs and shouting abuse outside the Japanese embassy and the residence of the Japanese ambassador. They broke a total of 25 windows in the buildings.

The protest were triggered by Tokyo's decision to approve a new school textbook which both China and South Korea say glosses over Japanese wartime atrocities.

The demonstrators, most of whom were university students, were also protesting against Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. The Japanese government on Sunday demanded an apology. It called the violence "extremely regrettable" and requested China take measures to protect its citizens and businesses.

China said it has repeatedly appealed for protesters to be calm and rational.

"The isolated extreme actions that happened during the protests are something we did not want to see," said foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

China said it was not responsible for the current state of Sino-Japanese relations, blaming worsening ties on Japan's failure to atone for its wartime past.

"The Japanese side must earnestly and properly treat major issues that relate to Chinese people's feelings such as the history of invasion against China ...," Qin said.

The government, which routinely cracks down on protests, made no effort to stop the demonstrations -- a sign that they are approved.

One man who joined the march to the Guangzhou consulate said he was furious with Japan.

"I hate Japan. I want to beat them (Japanese people) as soon as I see them," said the man, who identified himself as Xiao Dao.

Another protestor, surnamed Geng, said he felt a duty to demonstrate.

"As a Chinese, I think I ought to attend it. I think we should not resort to violence but at least we should express ourselves," Geng told AFP.

Japanese diplomats said there have been no injuries from the protests.

In Shanghai, however, two Japanese students sustained minor head injuries after they were attacked with a beer mug and an ashtray at a restaurant by a group of Chinese, the Japanese foreign ministry said.

In a sign that China does not want the protests to get out of hand, state-controlled media blacked out coverage of them, even though the Beijing protest was the largest in the capital since one by the banned spiritual group Falungong in 1999.

Trade has been skyrocketing and Beijing will not want to see a drop in Japanese investment in the country, analysts said.

"Beijing will not allow the protests to go on for too long," said Shi Yinhong, a political expert at People's University.

"Some government officials may think this can be used as leverage against Japan but at the same time, it can restrict the government."

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2 Japanese students beaten up at Shanghai restaurant
Sunday, April 10, 2005 at 17:16 JST

SHANGHAI — Two Japanese students were beaten at a restaurant in Shanghai on Saturday night and sustained injuries, the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai said Sunday. The students were beaten with a beer mug and an ashtray by an unknown number of Chinese, consulate officials said.

The two received treatment at a local hospital and later returned home. Consulate officials said the two were assailed after they identified themselves as Japanese shortly after entering the restaurant together with a group of foreign students. There were four Japanese students in the group. (Kyodo News)

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BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Japan's ambassador has called on the Chinese government to take stronger measures to protect its citizens as thousands of protesters demand a boycott of Japanese products and shout anti-Japanese slogans.

The protests are aimed at Japan's bid to become a permanent U.N. Security Council member and have been made more emotional by Chinese objections to how Japanese school textbooks recount Japan's 20th century military campaigns.

Sunday's protest by about 20,000 protesters in two cities in the southern Guangdong province followed Saturday's angry demonstration at Japan's embassy in Beijing.

About 10,000 Chinese surrounded Japan's consulate in Guangzhou, capital of the Guangdong province, carrying anti-Japanese banners and Chinese flags while they sang, shouted and chanted. Several Japanese flags were burned.

About 10,000 Chinese also marched on a Japanese department store in the city of Shenzhen, also in the Guangdong province.

Japanese press attache Ide Keiji told reporters Sunday that Japan's envoy Koreshige Anami talked by phone with Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister and called Saturday's protest, in which rocks and bottles were thrown at the Japanese embassy, "gravely regrettable."

Ambassador Anami also asked the Chinese government to take all necessary measures to protect Japanese citizens in China, Ide said.

The Japanese spokesman said the Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister expressed regret on behalf of his government for the Saturday protest and said the Chinese government could not allow it to happen again.

The protests are targeted at Japan's bid to become a permanent U.N. Security Council member and have been made more emotional by Chinese objections to how Japanese school textbooks recount Japan's 20th century military campaigns.

Some protesters threw rocks and plastic water bottles toward the embassy gate. The messages included a call for China to boycott Japanese products.

Hundreds of military police in riot gear lined up outside the embassy, while hundreds more police blocked nearby streets to keep the number of protesters down. Police moved in to end the protest after about an hour.

It was the biggest protest in the Chinese capital since 1999 when angry crowds demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy after three Chinese were killed when the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, in what was then the Yugoslav capital, was accidentally bombed.

That came during the NATO air war against the Serb-led forces in the Serbian province of Kosovo, where Serbs and ethnic Albanians had been fighting.

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China to develop city clusters along middle reaches of Yangtze
(Xinhua)
BEIJING - China on Sunday unveiled a plan to develop city clusters along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in a move to create a new economic growth engine and promote new urbanization.
They will mainly consist of...

First posted to the China Resurgent Forum on Nov. 14, 2004 at the following link:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/thread?forumid=238054&messageid=1100522352&lp=1100522352
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